Wedding photos, brighter

*I am trying to build up my photography portfolio and posted on Craigslist that I was looking for women to get into their wedding dresses for some fun photoshoots, and in exchange, I would print and matte up 2 free portraits for them. I was able to link directly to other photos in the craigslist ad, but these photos for some reason would not let me link directly. I created a post just for these pictures that I wanted to highlight in the ad.  So, in other words, not a real blog post per se, and more a not-shameless-at all plug as I work on moving to photography more seriously!

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Stalking the house

After we went to the flea market (the post below this one), we decided to take a drive out to see the house we are buying (going to the bank first thing tomorrow – Monday – to sign the loan paperwork, and then we have the appraisal, and we have to go back to the sellers for a couple of minor things from the home inspection – those are the last few hurdles right now). We were dorks and totally cased the house, peering in all the windows, going around out back, and of course, taking a few pictures. The real estate listing has already been pulled down, of course right before I was going to download some of the listing pictures, but soon enough, we should be able to start taking pictures of us moving in!

We drove up, and YAY! It has a sold sign!

B on his soon to be porch. He loves front porch sitting, as he calls it. Of course I do realize he isn’t sitting in this picture, though.

This kind of gives you an idea of the front of the house

And me, happy!

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Morning

Morning

Early light

snuggled in bed under the covers

A warm pup curled up near my feet

Birds outside chattering to each other

A few more minutes please

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What is life?

That was a question that was prominent in my dream last night.

This dream, like many of my dreams, was very real, very clear, like watching a movie. It was sad and heartbreaking and oddly beautiful all at the same time. (disclaimer — I have not seen the movie AI Artificial Intelligence, but I know generally what happens, and my dream seems to have a similar theme)

This little boy was sent to Earth by his “mother,” and he was sent from across the universe.

He loved his mother, but quickly touched people here.

His mother finally sent a message that she wanted him back, but there was a lot of concern for the little boy. For one, his mother would have aged considerably in the boy’s time here, while the boy hadn’t aged at all. Also, while the boy loved his mother, the mother didn’t return the love. To her, he was a possession. He’s not “real,” in the sense that he is technically a robot. This prompted a conversation in my dream between some of the characters. Some felt that the boy should be allowed to return to his mother, because he loved her. Some felt the woman shouldn’t be allowed to have him back, because she didn’t love him and only wanted him as a possession. And because of that, she couldn’t see the boy for the wonderful person he is, and love him.

It also prompted a conversation in my dream about what is life, because the boy clearly was able to love, and he functioned and looked like a boy, even though he wasn’t “real.”

Very interesting dream.

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For Ron,part one, and Tina, part 2 (the more important part)

Live long in blog land and prosper!

Now you are famous 🙂

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No. The answer is definitely no.

Dear reader,

You found my blog by searching on the phrase, “can you eat mermaid”

I will give you the definitive answer now and say NO, you cannot eat mermaid.

We are magical creatures, and sometimes hard to find (and harder to catch), but if you ever did catch a mermaid, you may NOT eat her.

Don’t underestimate the powers of mermaid, just because we tend to be lovely and love to play in the waves. We can be fierce fighters and are much, much stronger than we look. And you can rest assured that if you tried to eat one of us, the phrase “hell hath no fury” would take on a new level of meaning as we raised the seas to defend our sister.

And I’m sorry dear reader, but this comes across as an attack on me, and my fellow mermaid sisters. Don’t be surprised if a rip tide pulls you out to sea the next time you go in the ocean. Just saying. And I certainly wouldn’t count on any mermaids or dolphins saving you if you start to drown. Unless, we feel like having a snack. 😀

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I’ll buy you a new best friend

MyraPup is a lab to her core. Her greatest joys are meeting new people, meeting new dogs and chasing after balls.

Her balls in the yard that she plays with were starting to fall apart, so SheHangsBrightly bought her two new ones, one a tennis ball, one a pink hard rubber ball.

She LOVED the pink ball. It was her best friend in the whole world. She would obsess about it, to the point where she always wanted to go out and play with it more, or she would bring it inside with her and she would keep it by her or in her mouth for extended periods of time. The other day, she left it on the sun porch when our dog walker left in the afternoon, and when SheHangsBrightly came home, Myra pup was at the door to the sun porch, staring longingly at her best friend.

Which brings us to last night. I was playing with her in the back yard, and the ball went into the crawl space under the sun porch. Myra was devastated. She kept running back and forth and trying to get under the house to get her friend back. I tried to get it for her with the rake, but I couldn’t even see it, and randomly raking didn’t seem to do much. I tried to distract her with another ball, but she was having none of it.

I found myself telling her that I would buy her a new best friend. As soon as I said it, I had a vision of Veruca Salt and her father. “I want an oompa loompa now daddy.” “Well, Wonka, how much do you want for them? I have to buy it for her.”

So I went out to Petco and bought her not one but three new best friends, including a purple twin to her pink former best friend.

You will be happy and relieved to know that she loves Purple just as much as she loved Pink, and honestly, she doesn’t seem to remember Pink at all. Very fickle, that one.

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For B

From the Farmers’ Market

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To the searcher…

This is probably not very nice of me, but this is really boggling my mind.

Someone did a search on the Internet and ended up on my blog. Hello, dear searcher!

This searcher did a search for “What is a banana made of?”

This has me so baffled, I really don’t understand.

Bananas are made of bananas, they aren’t MADE of anything. At least not any bananas I eat!

Anyway, dear searcher, I hope you find what you are looking for.

Readers — any thoughts on what bananas are made of? Maybe I’m missing something 🙂

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blinders

So, I have photos from Day 4 of my photo challenge that I will have to post tonight, and didn’t take any yesterday. You try taking pictures while walking two big dogs! 🙂

Everything is starting to close in and feel tight, I’m feeling pressure and stress on a number of different fronts right now, and I am doing my best to keep my blinders firmly in place. I am trying to only focus on one thing at a time, and not look at the big picture, and not look at everything going on around me. If I keep my head down, out of the crazy wind, I can focus on what is right in front of me, but if I try to get a sense of everything going on, I quickly get overwhelmed and start to feel panicky and agitated. Normally, I like to try and get big picture views, so I can try to figure out how to best respond. But right now, I have to let go of that and just keep plugging away through things, one at a time. Seems simple and makes sense, right? Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest lessons to remember and hold on to. Clearly, I needed a reminder lesson that focusing on what is directly in front of me at this present moment, and not what I sense looming out in front of me, is all I can really focus and work on anyway.

Happy wanderings!

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